Richard Cork on William Roberts
David Cleall writes :
Following the brief formalities of the society's AGM, on 27 October Richard Cork delivered the 2007 William Roberts annual lecture, entitled 'William Roberts: Slade, Vortex and Trauma in the Great War'. By way of introduction, Cork recounted his unsuccessful attempts to interview William Roberts in the early 1970s, when researching his book Vorticism and Abstract Art in the First Machine Age and the accompanying Hayward Gallery exhibition. It had been frustrating to be unable to interview the sole survivor of the Vorticist group, and he drew a connection between the powerfully determined stare of the young Roberts in the Self-portrait of 1910 and Roberts's stubbornness in later life.
Richard Cork was sure that during William Roberts's time at the Slade, and in the period immediately following it, he had been influenced by the Post-Impressionism and Futurist exhibitions in London in 1910 and 1912. Using a slide of a beautifully coloured watercolour of this period, Ring of Roses, Cork demonstrated the influence of Matisse in its subject matter, composition and fluidity of style. And he spoke with enthusiasm and passion about the bold experimental and abstract work that was to follow. It was a 'tragic loss' that a number of the large canvases that Roberts exhibited at this time have not survived. In some cases we have no record of the pictures at all and in other cases we only have records of preparatory sketches. The watercolour Two-step , with its bold abstract approach to its Jazz Age subject, gives us some idea of his concerns, as do The Return of Ulysses and the extraordinary depiction of a party at Stewart Gray's artists' commune in Ormonde Terrace known as The Toe Dancer. Cork encouraged the audience to request a viewing of the latter work in the Victoria & Albert Museum, as it is very impressive in both scale and concept.
Moving from the Blast war issue in 1916, and the Great War itself, to the commissions that followed the war, Cork described the work that was largely produced in 1918–19 as being subversive rather than straightforwardly propagandist. He explained that a lot of the war artists' commissions were conceived on a huge scale and were planned to make a spectacular permanent exhibition in a specially designed remembrance hall, with John Singer Sargent's Gassed as the centrepiece. Richard Cork regretted that the project was not realised and that there were few opportunities now to see these important artworks. The Imperial War Museum has very limited space for its art exhibitions, and the impact of Gassed is limited by the confined space in the gallery that currently houses the picture. William Roberts' First German Gas Attack at Ypres is an extremely powerful example of an important and ambitious war commission that has been exhibited in this country only once since it was painted in 1919. A smaller and sombre black crayon drawing, Burying the Dead After a Battle (1919) was singled out by Cork as 'one of the most powerful depictions of grief throughout all war art'.
Burying the Dead After a Battle, 1919
© The Estate of John David Roberts
In considering the post-war period, Richard Cork felt that the trauma experienced by Roberts could be seen in his non-war subjects. Using the examples of The Dancers (1919) and The Cinema (1920) he felt that the dancers could almost be fighting, and in both works the facial expressions of the people have a schematic and grotesque appearance that conveys trauma.
Throughout the lecture Richard Cork's passion for his subject was evident, and the confident and easy-going way in which he facilitated discussion on William Roberts in the question-and-answer session was appreciated by all.
The afternoon was rounded off by the witty and brilliant film Blast!, which was directed by Murray Grigor with the close involvement of Richard Cork in 1975.
Marion Hutton adds:
Yes, it was a most successful occasion with a good audience. We appreciated the support of friends from the Wyndham Lewis Society and from Pallant House Gallery. I was amused when my sister reported a conversation which she overheard at the end of the afternoon. A non-member praised the occasion. Her male friend, a member, concurred: 'Yes, these old girls do an excellent job.' Our apologies to David, Michael, Arno and Bob!
New exhibitions featuring William Roberts
'Unpopular Culture' – Grayson Perry selects from the Arts Council Collection
WR is among the artists featured in an exhibition – 'Unpopular Culture' – that the potter Grayson Perry has selected from the Arts Council Collection of British post-war art. The exhibition examines a period in history which Perry argues was a time 'before British Art became fashionable', and includes more than 70 works by 50 artists, encompassing a variety of media: figurative painting, bronze sculpture and documentary photography. ' Says Perry:The first time I trawled through the catalogues of the Collection I was drawn to these three distinct categories of art, which are bound together both by the period of their inception and their ineffable sense of mood; subtle, sensitive, lyrical and quiet in contrast to today when much art can seem like shouty advertisements for concepts or personalities. I also felt a need to confront the hackneyed version of the recent past that is the default mode of the nostalgia industry. Take the swinging sixties – this psychedelic, mini-driving, mini-skirt wearing, Beatles-loving supposed glory age which I suspect was really only enjoyed by a minority. This exhibition shows another side.
Artists represented include Kenneth Armitage, Frank Auerbach, Ian Berry, Anthony Caro, Lynn Chadwick, Barbara Hepworth, L. S. Lowry, Henry Moore, Paul Nash and Eduardo Paolozzi, and there are two new works by Perry himself. WR is represented by The Seaside (c. 1965–6):
The Seaside (aka Sun-bathing ), c .1965–6
© The Estate of John David Roberts
The exhibition opens at De la Warr Pavilion, Bexhill-on-Sea, on 10 May–6 July; thereafter it tours to the Harris Museum and Art Gallery, Preston (19 July–14 September ); DLI Museum and Art Gallery, Durham (15 November 2008–4 January 2009); Southampton City Art Gallery (17 January–15 March 2009); Aberystwyth Arts Centre (21 March–10 May 2009); Scarborough Art Gallery (16 May–5 July 2009); Longside Gallery, Wakefield (18 July–25 October 2009); Victoria Art Gallery, Bath (7 November 2009 –3 January 2010).
William Roberts in Madrid
WR is among the artists to be featured in the exhibition '1914! The Avant-Garde and the War', to take place in Madrid between October 2008 and February 2009. The works to be shown include Rosières Valley (1918), During a Battle (c. 1918), Brigade Headquarters: Signallers and Linesmen (c. 1918) and Soldiers Hanging Camouflage Screens Roclincourt, Arras, Spring 1917 (1918)
Soldiers Hanging Camouflage Screens Roclincourt, Arras, Spring 1917 (aka Soldiers Erecting Camouflage at Roclincourt near Arras, 1917 ), 1918 (Victoria & Albert Museum)
© The Estate of John David Roberts
Roberts in the saleroom
In Sotheby's sale of twentieth-century British art on 18 March a 1960 pencil self-portrait by WR sold for £4,375, inc. buyer's premium (estimate £4,000–£6,000).
Self-portrait, 1960
© The Estate of John David Roberts
A student work, Portrait of an Old Man (aka Portrait of Slade Model ), was unsold (estimate £4,000–£6,000).
Portait of Slade Model, 1912
© The Estate of John David Roberts
On 16 November Christie's exceeded their upper estimate of £8,000 with The Something Road Group , which sold for £12,500 (inc. buyer's premium).
The Something Road Group, c. 1956 (private collection)
© The Estate of John David Roberts
On 21 November, however, in their sale of British Art on Paper Demolition (pencil, 1970; estimate £2,500–£3,500) failed to meet its reserve.
Additions to the website
Recent additions to the website include the summary of WR's career given in Elizabeth Cayzer's catalogue for the 1980 Maclean Gallery exhibition of Roberts's work, and also the text and illustrations of her 2002 William Roberts Lecture: 'William Roberts's Portraits'. We are very grateful to her for letting us reproduce these pieces. The site now also contains the text of WR's surprisingly genial article 'Wyndham Lewis, the Vorticist', which appeared in The Listener in 1957, and the foreword by Muirhead Bone to the catalogue of WR's first one-man show, at the Chenil Galleries in November 1923, as well as over forty additional illustrations of WR's work, all of which are included in the list of works illustrated on the site.
Collection of WR images, and requests for others
David Cleall is in the process of updating his listings of Roberts's works. He now has nearly one thousand recorded images, and his collection of reproductions has been boosted by Ruth Artmonsky giving him her own considerable collection of copies. David has now accumulated probably six or seven hundred reproductions of WR's work – surely the most comprehensive collection anywhere. He has been most generous in sharing his work with others, and Andrew Heard, who organised the acclaimed Roberts retrospective in 2004, and Andrew Gibbon Williams have acknowledged their debt and gratitude to him.
David would be very grateful if he could be notified of any reproductions of rare Roberts work via
He is happily surprised that details of pictures previously not recorded are still emerging from time to time. At the Andrew Gibbon Williams' book launch a guest of Mishcon de Reya kindly donated two photographs of WR's First World War subjects Walking Wounded and The Crown and Anchor Board. Despite their being of great historical and artistic interest, neither of these pictures has an exhibition history and neither has been reproduced anywhere. The Crown and Anchor Board depicts a barracks game referred to in Roberts's excellent First World War memoir, Howitzer Gunner .
Four pictures that David would be particularly interested in acquiring reproductions
of are The Dogs of the Ben Hillal
(a.k.a. Wolves and Men
); Susanna and the Elders
and Anthony and Cleopatra
(a.k.a. Anthony in Egypt
).
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